(no subject)

[joebanks]

It has not been hot here. Today's high may have hit 60 and that's the warmest it's been most of the week. Saturday it reached 53 and it's been wet; a constant drizzle.
The heat has been on because Cheryl has not been well, though sitting in one spot does not make one warm.

Eye doctor tomorrow, to see if my retina has wrinkled anymore or if the secondary cataract has grown more over my replacement lens. I think it has.

I went to an Al-anon meeting, we had gone to some a year and a half ago, but this was for me. It's not my thing; you're supposed to go six weeks before you reject it. Maybe different meetings are different; this one seemed to be more about theory; read a page, discuss how it applies. I don't know.
Almost all meetings are early in the morning or in the evening when i'm at work, very few options for early afternoon. Not sure why; if you can go to a meeting at 8 AM. you can't go to a meeting at 2 PM? People work all hours anymore.

I knocked out some low hanging plaster in the living room ceiling and am trying to put a somewhat smooth replacement. As long as it doesn't fall i'll consider it a win.

I used to hear that plasterers priced themselves out of business, but that wasn't it. They were put out of work by a cheaper technology. What an art it was. Years ago i tried to plaster another bad spot on the ceiling and it was terrifying. You have to take this pudding and smoosh it in place and smooth it out and not have it just plop on the floor. Even in our basic workers cottage, there are some amazing curves.

We turn on ourselves. Plasterers wanted too much money; I heard this growing up from other working class folk; whose turn woulld come in time.

Comments

[rafqa]

Wow, how'd it go? I'm somewhat horrified to learn you can have secondary cataracts over an artificial lens--I always thought cataracts were a clouding OF the lens, shows you how much I know. I need to have the surgery, as soon as I can manage it.

I feel like I could stand to see a bit of rain, but drizzling and 53 in June sounds really gloomy. Does she have a heated blanket? everyone seems to be using those here.

All these incredibly skilled crafts, going by the wayside. I'm impressed that you know how to do all these things, even if it's plastering at level 1. I've never even thought about plastering. I was talking to a teacher who was sent in to period sub a class I was in (before I discovered I was in the wrong class, but that was yet to come)--talking about the "everyone needs to go to college" nonsense that's been choking us for thirty years or more, and he was telling me about how 20 years ago or so, the unions were simply not letting new people in, was really difficult for young people to enter the trades at all, and how they sort of shot themselves in the foot.

But some of these people do want too much money, and it sometimes approaches extortion. Who even uses plaster anymore, except in an historic house?

From what I've heard over the years, twelve step groups are really really various. Don't they have virtual ones yet?

[joebanks]

Eyes slightly worse and I am scheduled for a laser blasting session on July. I am already in my sweet spot with my insurance, My leg surgeries in January helped(?). I'm over my deductible. I ask him about reinal detachment, he shrugs; yes, no, maybe.

It dropped to 45 Monday morning and today's high is projected at 87.

Not the blanket type; everyone can be difficult.

I have fear of failure overridden by fear of contractors. So, i will try some things sometimes.

While, Yes, I agree that the trades have been ignored. I feel it is often a message spouted by the anti-education party; throw in some anti-unionism and I'm convinced.
They are doing everything possible to gut public education in this state. One of the latest examples is to funnel ever larger amount of public money to voucher programs at the expense of public schools. Public schools are funded through property taxes in Ohio and levies are more and more difficult to pass. Now someone has introduced a proposal that for a levy to pass in a school district a simple majority won't be enough; they would like to require a 60% margin. There will never be another successful pass.

There are virtual. IDK; a bunch talking heads on a screen; I see that being dominated by a few loud voices.

[rafqa]

Yeah, you're right about screens, but the loud voices problem, I think that can be true of in-person groups too. ALL groups. It's a drawback. Plus having to hear a whole lot of stuff you don't need/want to hear.

My main contact with the Al-Anon phenomenon was a graduate school friend who got into it and IMO was basically addicted to it. She was going to one or two meetings a day! and this had to do with her retrospective assessment of her birth family, not anything that was an immediate crisis. Then she went to "therapy" and decided she had multiple personalities and a whole lot of other progressively incredible nonsense. But to be fair, she was a bit overcharged to begin with.

What is the anti-education party? You mean like the anti-"elites"/anti-university crowd?

Public education is a mess, but so vital. I'm not sure where we're going with it.

Yeah, I'm not the blanket type either; I was given one for Christmas (after repeatedly saying I DIDN'T WANT ONE) and it's still sitting in the box., till I figure out who to unload it on. Maybe she'd like the Sasquatch outfit.

[joebanks]

I think a couple of the people there were borderline "this is my life". I'm not looking for that, I'm not looking for a code to live by.

I am not a starry-eyed follower of the Democratic party, but it is quite clear (to me at least) that the Republican party is trying to destroy public education. They suspect it of radicalizing students and would prefer religious based or for profit private schools, where free thinking can be controlled. IMO.

Or the blanket with the sleeves.